Standardized testing has many advantages and disadvantages. It demonstrates student progress, helps teachers find areas for improvement, and prepares students for careers and colleges. However, it takes away class time, increases stress level, and can make students feel poorly about themselves if they do not score well. 

A study from 2015 from “The Council of Great City Schools” found that students take an average of 112 tests in their school education from Kindergarten to 8th grade. 65.4 percent of students struggle with standardized tests, so only 34.6 percent of students meet or exceed the standard of these tests.

Some advantages of testing are it demonstrates student progress because through the testing they can see if the students have increased or decreased in their educational learning. It helps teachers find room for improvement because they can see what areas in which their students may struggle. Lastly, it prepares students for careers and colleges because the tests show evidence of your education increasing which can help you get scholarships to colleges or careers. Also it will prepare you for big tests you will take in college. 

Some of the disadvantages include taking away class time because these tests can be as long as 2-3 hours. It can make students feel bad about themselves if they don’t score well.  It increases stress level because students might get stressed about high expectations, test outcomes, fear of failure, or pressure of perfectionism.   

 Multiple states have thought about not doing standardized tests but no states officially have. Some of these states are Nebraska and Florida. 8 states have laws that parents can ask the principal for their child to opt out of the test, and the rest of the states the test is mandatory. 

Standardized testing has many advantages and disadvantages, testing can be very purposeful to help teachers see student progression, but it can also cause lots of stress on students and teachers.